Solar Totaling 3.25 Gigawatts Planned By Virginia’s AES, Florida’s NextEra (Not Dominion)

Solar contracts totaling 3.25 gigawatts in Virginia and Florida have been announced recently by utilities other than Dominion.

Arlington-based AES, a global power company, will build a 500-megawatt solar farm in Virginia that will double the state’s solar capacity, according to a Microsoft press release; Microsoft will buy most of the solar farm’s power.  (Technically the solar farm will be developed by sPower, jointly owned by AES and a Canadian financial firm.)

In a bolder move, Florida-based NextEra Energy has contracted for up to 2.75 gigawatts of solar panels from Jinko Solar over the next four years.  NextEra owns Florida Power & Light, the nation’s third-largest electric utility.

A while back, Dominion concluded that 15 gigawatts of solar would save customers $1.5 billion, compared to the utility’s proposed North Anna 3 nuclear reactor.  AES, and particularly NextEra, are showing Dominion the way forward on solar.

(Photo: DeSoto Solar Energy Center, a NextEra Energy/ Florida Power & Light solar farm.)